Using Your NationBuilder Website

Help Index

 

 

Logging In

The site footer and header have links for logging in and logging out. These links are sensitive to your log in state; if you are logged in, you'll only see the logout link and vice versa.  Admins may see additional links.

When you log in, its simplest to use the same method each time.  If you've always logged in w/ Facebook or Twitter the system hasn't issued you an email password, so logging in (or attempting to create a new account) w/ your email will not work. 

(Back to Help Index)

 

Managing Your Homepage

Add a homepage "home_feature" rotator slider

The large images that rotate across the top of your homepage form your rotator slide.  It’s a place to put evergreen or semi-permanent content that shows compelling images (either of Columbia or your club or both) and a brief message.  

Rotators are set within the "Home Feature" page. Each slide consists of a label, a headline/call-to-action, a destination link and a photo.

  1. Edit "Home Feature" (Website > Pages > home_feature)
  2. Click the Featured content sliders tab
  3. Fill in the text fields to reflect the caption and the destination URL when the image is clicked on  (Want to link to offsite content?)
  4. Upload an image
  5. Save

Drag and drop existing sliders in the list on the right  to re-sequence them.

Change your homepage content

Your homepage is your first impression. You might want to put basic information about your club, a welcome letter from your group’s president, or a brief profile of your organization.

  1. Edit “Home” (Website > Pages > home) 
  2. Click “Content”
  3. From here you can change or add text, photos, and other information.

Add a page to the site footer navigation

The links in your footer navigation bar are best used for secondary (i.e. not immediate or high priority) or functional information.  If you want to edit or add to the footer navigation, you might want to consider a ‘contact us’ link, fine print about your group’s terms or policies, etc.

Near the bottom of each page is a full-width band that contains a supplemental navigation bar. You can easily designate which pages display here:

  1. Create or edit a page you want to add to the menu
  2. Go to the page tab "Settings" and write footer in the tags field
  3. Save

Add a "Get Involved" button

"Get Involved" buttons (Supporter nav, in NationBuilder terms) consist of a call to action and a destination link. There can be up to 3 buttons and they can be created and edited under Website > Site Settings > Supporter nav.  Each button links to a page.

  1. Create or edit the page you want to add to as a Get Involved button
  2. Fill in text (what you want the button to read) and page (the slug of the page you want to link to) fields
  3. Save

 

(Back to Help Index)

 

Managing Your Content

Create a new page

When you create a new page, you have many choices for the type of page.  Most of the page types have self-explanatory names (like Basic Page, Blog Post, Event).  Details for adding pages to your 'news' and 'events' pages follow, using a process that automatically select the page type for you.  A detailed overview of other page types can be found here.

Creating News 

Your ‘news’ page is a place to post articles, announcements, or other types of content. The most recent piece will appear at the top, and old news will cycle down the page; once there are more than 10 posts, your site will automatically create a ‘next page’ prompt for older content.

Some ideas for your ‘news’ page include updates on membership, events, alumni profiles, or other timely items or announcements you want to share.

  1. In your main menu (pages), click News
  2. Click New Blog Post on the sidebar of the front end of the website OR go to Posts & Subpages in the admin dashboard of the News and click New Post.
  3. Enter an article title in Headline. 
  4. Slug will populate automatically. 
  5. Set Status to "draft"
  6. Click Create Blog Post and the page will be saved.
  7. Enter content on the next screen
  8. Before the flip: the content shown on the News page
  9. After the flip: the content shown when a visitor clicks "Learn more" to read the full article
  10. Once content has been entered and proofed, publish the page by going to settings in the dashboard of your blog post and changing the dropdown to Published
  11. Save
Creating Events

Your ‘calendar’ page is a place to post events. The most recent event will appear at the top, older events will cycle down the page, and once an event has passed, it will move from the event listing to a 'past events' page. The next several scheduled events will display automatically on the home page.

  1. Log in
  2. On the front end of your site, click Programs and Events in the menu bar. When in your event calendar, click New Event. OR from the admin dashboard, choose calendar from your list of pages, then click Events and sub-pages then choose New Event.
  3. Enter an event name in Name. 
  4. Slug will populate automatically. 
  5. Set Status to "draft"
  6. Click Create Page and the event will be saved.
  7. Enter content. (Watch an overview of event setup that covers each field, including different ticket levels, payment options, setting  up an auto-confirmation email and checking people in at the event) 
  8. Once content has been entered and proofed, publish the event by going to Settings and change the status to Published
  9. Save

 

Add inline images (Blog, etc)

To place an image in a blog post using the WYSISYG editor:
  1. Resize your image (outside of NationBuilder) to a max width of 1000 pixels (contact your liaison in the Alumni Relations office if you need help).
  2. Upload an via the 'Files' tab (available for for most content types like jpgs, gifs, PDFs, and other file types)
  3. Under the "Content" tab, click the WYSISYG's image icon 
  4. Your uploaded image will then appear on the "Image List" dropdown
  5. Select the image from the list and click "Insert" 
  6. Fill in the "image description" field
  7. Save the page

Add a video, picture, or slideshow to your Blog or Gallery pages

Your site comes with a Gallery page for your club photos. If you don’t have enough photos to justify an entirely separate page, you might want to consider having photos interspersed with other types of blog announcements on the News page.
NationBuilder uses embed.ly – a great tool that links video and photo sharing sites to your pages.

To embed a photo gallery, slideshow, or video, you will need to house your pictures or film in a common tool such as Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, or a variety of others.  Then all you need to do is grab the URL from where you uploaded your pictures and paste it into a new blog post in your Gallery page.  NationBuilder will automatically grab the photos from the link you pasted - you can see an example of how easy it is here.

Embed content that embed.ly rejects

  1. Copy the content to embed (iframe, etc)
  2. Edit the target page, selecting the "template" tab
  3. Look for the "content" tag, which will be named according to the content type, like: 
    {{ page.basic.content }}
  4. Paste the embed content below the content tab.

Link to a file

You might want to link to a file that users can download, like a PDF poster or copy of your by-laws in Word format.
Here's how:

Upload the file and get a link to it:

  1. Uploaded a file to a page using the "files" tab
  2. Once the file uploads, it will appear in a list
  3. Right-click on the file name and copy the link

Add the link to your page:

  1. Edit the page using the "content" tab 

If you are linking to existing text:

  1. Select the text you'd like to link to the file.
  2. Select the link icon from the WYSIWYG toolbar
  3. Paste the file url (on your clipboard) into the "File URL" field
  4. Click "Insert"
  5. Save the page

If you are typing in new text to link:

  1. Type the text you want to link to the file, then select it.
  2. Select the link icon from the WYSIWYG toolbar
  3. Paste the file url (on your clipboard) into the "File URL" field
  4. Click "Insert"
  5. Save the page

 

SEO Meta-data

See a thumbnail of how the site will be seen by search engines here.

(Back to Help Index)

 

Set up a Bank Account

In order to accept donations and/or sell event tickets, you'll need to set up your site's bank account.

This is a two-step process: 

  1. Set up an account with a payment processor supported by NationBuilder (video).
  2. Add that account info to NationBuilder's settings, here.

(Back to Help Index)

 

Connect Your Club's Twitter and Facebook Accounts

Connect your club site with Twitter account and Facebook page for additional benefits.  Once connected, your site can post on behalf of your club and sync with Facebook events.

Connect Twitter

  1. Log into the club's Twitter account.  
  2. Browse to Communication > Your Site
  3. Click Connect Twitter Account

Connect Facebook

  1. Log into the club's Facebook page.  
  2. Browse to Communication > Your Site
  3. Click Connect Facebook page

(Back to Help Index)

 

NationBuilder How-Tos and Help

How-Tos on YouTube

(Back to Help Index)

 

Be the first to comment

You’re not logged in. please login or create an account.
with your social media account
with your social media account